And so Alira happened to take a leisurely stroll into the Void.
Okay, neither was it a stroll, more like walking warily, nor did she know that what she simply called darkness, was actually the emptiness behind creation.
To be fair, there was no way she could have known that. And that would be alright, was it only this she didn’t know. But she didn’t know of the peculiar effects the Void has on mortal entities, and even a few lower gods, either.
Some, few, actually kinda cool. But most, unfortunately, detrimental to one’s health, mental and otherwise.
Not that more than a handful of seriously powerful beings could tread there safely, to tell the tale, in the first place.
Well, suffice to say the Void remained void for a reason.
One question, though. A question also growing louder in Alira’s mind by the minute. How, the fuck, was this even possible?
The System (AN: The blue, or whatever, coloured screens every LitRPG has to embrace Very Happy [https://forum.royalroadl.com/images/smilies/biggrin.png] I love them.) did seem to work properly.
Not that she would even suspect it not working, because it, as far as she knew, worked everywhere. Not necessarily true, but in this instance, a pointless thing to know. It works (almost) fine inside the Void, anyway.
She checked indirectly, by opening her status to look at what the encounter in the storage facility had cost her, health-wise.
Status Name: Alira Wesz Human, Level 7 Title(s): None Class(es): None HP: 116 / 160 MP: 20 / 20 STR: 6 INT: 12 DEX: 11 WIS: 8 PHY Resistance: 4% MAG Resistance: 0%
Afflictions Light Burn: Don't play with fire. Effect: -1 HP / Minute, 1 Hour 32 Minutes remaining
“Seems to be okay. A slight burn affliction, nothing serious.” She assured herself, talking loudly in an attempt to fill the silence in this weird place.
Then, she hesitated. Just as she was about to close her status screen, a bunch of new afflictions appeared in the list, none of which she had ever even heard of. (Again, she couldn’t. The Void is not exactly known to average mortals, at all.)
Afflictions Light Burn: Don't play with fire. Suffer light damage over time (-1 HP / Minute, 1 Hour 32 Minutes remaining) Meaningless Time: The Void is a strange place. Time has no meaning (?) Meaningless Life: The Void is a strange place. Life has no meaning, effect increases over time (?) Meaningless Self-Awareness: The Void is a strange place. Self-Awareness has no meaning, effect increases over time (?)
Yeah, the System ALMOST works fine in the Void.
For reasons, Alira could not even begin to grasp, the concrete description of the effects, these afflictions had on her, was simply (?).
What the fuck is this? She thought. At least, she know knew the former name of this place devoid of light, sound, or anything really.
“The Void, huh? Kinda ominous. And what is up with these buffs?”
She had never heard anything quite like it. What the hell means meaningless.. eh.. time, for example?
As her priority was to not find out what the Void was all about, but to use it as an escape route, she forcefully quit dwelling on things she couldn’t get an answer to anyway.
“Now, i guess, all that is left is to find a way out of here, preferably not back the way i came from.” She hummed to herself and went on walking, because naturally, there was a floor here in the nothingness. Or something like that.
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…
Around a decade or so later.
…
She was still walking. She didn’t even know why, any more. Everything was pointless, after all. At first, the walk into emptiness was boring, the only thing differing from the surroundings was the gem, still shining (She held it in her hand like a torch). But she was optimistic. Then, after at least a few days of wandering aimlessly, she wasn’t so confident any more, she became worried about dying of hunger or thirst before finding a way out, only to notice another week or so later, that she didn’t seem to have the need for sustenance any more (and defecation). She even began to think, she might have died, back in the closet, after all and that this was the afterlife, or hell, or whatever.
But then, she gradually stopped thinking. About herself, about her situation. The only thing still left in her was the stubborn principle to keep on walking.
And so she did, for years. Not that she was able to tell anymore, what was years, and what was seconds. In fact, she couldn’t even tell any more what was her, and what was the Void.
Along with the loss of awareness, came the loss of passing time. She stopped ageing physically, unbeknownst to her.
All of this was, naturally, the Void’s doing. Its effects made mortals loose themselves, and everything they were, amongst other funny things, like ignoring the passage of time. It was rare, but quite normal, to find mortals stand or sit somewhere in the vast emptiness, for aeons, never to move again. May it be wizards too greedy for power, and stupid enough, to peak into the Void, or mere wanderers, who ended up here by unfortunate circumstances.
The only reason she did anything at all (walking Very Happy [https://forum.royalroadl.com/images/smilies/biggrin.png]), was the gem. She of course had no clue what the gem was, or that it affected her in any way.
Well, it was the tool of someone once. Someone who used it long ago, to travel the Void, back when that someone was yet too weak to nullify its effects. Now, that certain someone would see it as no more than a mere toy, though.
In short, someone who used to be mortal, and now hadn’t been for a long time, had created it at some point in the annals of history.
The gem’s function was simple, really. Program a destination into it, and take it with you, when on vacation behind the fabric of reality. Then it will accomplish two things. First, you will not let go of the gem. Second, you will walk towards the preprogrammed destination, if necessary, forever.
While so simple in design, succeeding in creating such a tool (or toy) is quite an arduous task, believe the one who made it. So it was only natural, to block others from using it. That it worked for Alira at all, was.. unfortunate.. or at least unplanned, by some unknown circumstance ignoring the safety measures in place against unauthorised use.
...
Back to Alira.
She was still kind of afk, walking towards the last destination stored in the shiny tool she held since entering this place.
For the first time in dozens of years, something appeared in front of her. The outlines of a dark, dusty room, littered with trash, only illuminated slightly by the precious gem.
In what was hours, she ever so slowly crept closer to that collection of things that existed, as opposed to the nothingness where she tread.
When she set food on the dirty stone that made the mysterious room’s floor, she seemed to wake from an ever so real nightmare, and the first thing she did, was vomit all over, as she regained her senses.
“FUCK… *barf* … ME!” She cursed fate itself, swishing over her mouth with her arm. “What.. the.. f-fuck.” Her voice wavered, as she started sobbing, her momentary anger extinguished, as if it never was. The pressure of a decade’s worth of deprivation of any sensory input, loneliness, and the realisation she had lost herself completely, overwhelmed her for a minute.
When Alira finally calmed down, she looked around the room she had ended up in, for the first time.
Once, it must have been an expensive room, in an expensive house / palace / official building. Now, it was trashed and withered, so old that the smell was not one of waste, but of dry dust.
Only the golden chandeliers, immune to rust (It’s real gold, duh!), stood tall, as a testament to how this place must’ve looked like in its prime.
At first, she pretended to wonder where she was, in an attempt to force down the memories of the passive torture she had just been through. But then, her interest was piqued for real. Through a hole in the wall (probably was a door originally), she could make out a tiny part of an outline of a city, halfway covered in sand. The lighting was kind of reddish, growing brighter by the second, unnatural in colour even for a sunrise. Hence, interesting.
She stumbled to her feet, reminding herself once more that putting her recently acquired memories in a mental box, never to be opened, was her way of staying sane, no matter the circumstance.
At least this place was warm. Temperature, another thing the Void seemed to hold no concept of.
She slightly shivered. “Damn. Don’t think about it. Ignore the past, girl.” She reprimanded herself.
She aimed for the door, leaning in the frame, taking in the view of a place, that couldn’t possibly be in her homeland.
“Maybe not even home world”, she whispered to herself wryly.